It's no fun any more

[RobM]

Football, I mean.

 

It used to be exciting, even being a Saints fan. Never knowing what results would be, beating the teams who should pound us into the ground and losing against the teams who should be a walk in the park. Constantly losing our top names and finding young stars from the lower leagues.

 

And even recently, it used to be fun coming on forums like this and chatting football to other football fans, even if people didn't always agree it was always about the football.

 

But every post now (inc. this one in 5 minutes no doubt) is about Lowe. Even threads about injuries, players signing or leaving, match reports... they all last two replys and turn into Lowe bashing.

 

I know some people get off of this sort of thing. But are there any football fans out there any more? Anybody want to just talk football? How about a quick argument about the merits of 4-4-2? No....?

[OnTheCross]

Common sense with 4-4-2 would suggest that you should get more balls into the box and therefore increase your goalscoring opportunities. It's generally more entertaining and sets a positive winning mentality as well.

 

Of course that comes down to supply. If your midfield is a porous wreck, and you've got paceless lumps as fullbacks, then it might not work.

 

Again common sense that having that additional body further up the park, means that you're less able to defend (unless the team defends from the front)

 

With this in mind, if you support a team with a revolving door of a defensive line up, then the lack of understanding is going to lead to both inability to create from the back and to prevent pressure building up. Having 5 in the midfield at least gives them an extra body to hoof it up the park to.

 

So while I'd much rather have 4-4-2, I also understand that we've no best eleven, not capable strikers, no consistent midfielders and a porous defence. So dropping a striker back at least minimises some of the damage at times.

 

There, a really, really basic look at 4-4-2, as requested. It had to be as simple as that or I'd have started going on about the type of players to have in those positions, training, or transfer policy and that's only going to go one way.

 

It really *is* hard to post anything, without having a go at certain folks. :-)

 

So, while I'd like a 4-3-3 silky Barcelona team, our best bet to avoid cuffings is if we can clone Davis and have a human pyramid in the goalmouth every game. the 11-0-0-0 formation.

[Legod Third Coming]

For me, this league has always been set up for the classic Xmas tree formation with either wingbacks or genuine wingers.

 

90% of goalies in the league are poor.

 

We never, ever get to the byeline and belt the ball across the goalmouth to simply see what happens.

 

Even Kelvin doesn't deal with crosses well.

 

I would like to see us play with a lone striker, man in the hole BUT two wingers - proper - asked to play wide and stay wide.

[ozzmeister]

Good man trying to actually get some decent football chat out of this forum, I agree its been mind numbingly competitive, perhapse the mods can set up a Lowe debating room and leave the rest of us to chat about the good old game!

 

As for 4-4-2 are you discussing the merits of a flat four man midfield or a diamond (DM + AM) formation. My preference and its only football manager but is two attcking wingers, CM and DM.

 

As for Saints who knows, we seem to have an abundance of ok central midfielders so maybe my above formation would work with Skacel and maybe Patterson playing as the attacking wingers?

[OnTheCross]

I'm sure someone will correct me, but didn't Hoddle briefly try 3 central defenders, possibly in pre season?

 

They looked so utterly lost, clueless, and I suspect utterly incapable of changing, that it was an idea speedily dropped.

 

Still, Bridge and Bale as wing-backs. That would have been good.

[Legod Third Coming]

Regardless of formation though, we have to move the ball quicker and more forward.

 

We don't attack in numbers so suddenly Holmes will get the ball in an advanced position, look up and find no-one to hit.

 

So he turns, and all the pace goes out of the attack.

 

I wonder how much of this is:

 

formation

fitness

confidence

ability.

 

But I want to see us attack wide, at pace and stick men in the box and introduce a fine system if you pass the ball backwards while we're attacking, unless you spread play!!

[RobM]

As for 4-4-2 are you discussing the merits of a flat four man midfield or a diamond (DM + AM) formation. My preference and its only football manager but is two attcking wingers, CM and DM.

 

This is my preference for sure. But this system, IMO, relies on having two decent full backs who can defend and have a bit of pace. Come back Wayne Bridge...

 

I think full backs are the only missing link from our current squad. We just then need to encourage players to attack in numbers and get in the box, something only Saga seems aware of at the moment, with the rest of the squad following behind too far out to be useful.

 

Our current squad with two full backs would be pretty good. More than good enough to challenge for a play-off position, given a fresh start to the season and a manager who knows the CCC.

 

Keep Perry and Size at CB, Wotton as our DM and Surman as the CM with Holmes and BWP on the wings. Then with Saga and McG up front things suddenly look quite good.

[Dalek2003]

Our players are not that good, but the squad should be good enough for mid table atleast. We need a good manager, simple as that.

[St Landrew]

Football, I mean.

 

It used to be exciting, even being a Saints fan. Never knowing what results would be, beating the teams who should pound us into the ground and losing against the teams who should be a walk in the park. Constantly losing our top names and finding young stars from the lower leagues.

 

And even recently, it used to be fun coming on forums like this and chatting football to other football fans, even if people didn't always agree it was always about the football.

 

But every post now (inc. this one in 5 minutes no doubt) is about Lowe. Even threads about injuries, players signing or leaving, match reports... they all last two replys and turn into Lowe bashing.

 

I know some people get off of this sort of thing. But are there any football fans out there any more? Anybody want to just talk football? How about a quick argument about the merits of 4-4-2? No....?

 

With respect RobM, but what do you expect..? Saints might well be embarking into territory they've not been near in 50 years or so. They have the weakest squad I've ever seen, and the boardroom seem to be steering the club like the Titanic on its inevitable way to its encounter with the Iceberg. Ok, in this case, no-one will die, but there's a danger the club might. Now if that means you can't come on here and find some fun in talking football, well then perhaps you need to stay away until the future of SFC is sorted out one way or another. I'd love to talk about the merits of 4-4-2, but somehow it doesn't mean much when there are more important issues.

[Fitzhugh Fella]

I'm sure someone will correct me, but didn't Hoddle briefly try 3 central defenders, possibly in pre season?

 

They looked so utterly lost, clueless, and I suspect utterly incapable of changing, that it was an idea speedily dropped.

 

Still, Bridge and Bale as wing-backs. That would have been good.

 

Is your last sentence a criticism of the way the club is/was run?

[miserableoldgit]

Our players are not that good, but the squad should be good enough for mid table atleast. We need a good manager, simple as that.

 

Any suggestions??:-k

[Stu Man Do]

Our players are not that good, but the squad should be good enough for mid table atleast. We need a good manager, simple as that.

 

 

Indeed ****es me off how teams like Norwich and Plymouth have very few if any players significantly better than what we have yet they always seem to push on if they find themselves in strife and no doubt end up x pts ahead of us come the end of the season!

 

Results today have really not helped us out so I guess now we'll either see us pick it up and really work to stay in the division or as I suspect a lack of passion leading to our relegation ... sad times :-(

 

As for formations Id like to see Skacel tried up front even if for 20 mins or so, perhaps just behind Saganowski, after all its the position he excelled in for Hearts and pretty much why we signed him. Does anyone remember him ever being tried in the "in the hole" position? As much as I want Lallana to work out I think he just needs to be pulled out for his own good before we ruin him!

[team-saint]

Any suggestions??:-k

 

nigel pearson

 

oh i see lowe got rid of him, hence start of lowe bashing

 

so it's lowe's fault we don't talk about football on here

[RobM]

As for formations Id like to see Skacel tried up front even if for 20 mins or so, perhaps just behind Saganowski, after all its the position he excelled in for Hearts and pretty much why we signed him. Does anyone remember him ever being tried in the "in the hole" position? As much as I want Lallana to work out I think he just needs to be pulled out for his own good before we ruin him!

 

I made a similar comment to a couple of fans after the Sheffield Utd game. We bought Rudi after his impressive performances for Hearts, where he was being used 'in the hole' in a fairly free to roam role. So I don't understand why we don't use him in the same way here... we give Lallana that position who has done nothing in recent weeks. Yet at the Utd game it was desperately clear that we needed somebody else to create attacks and bring the play forward.

 

Id stil go 4-4-2 though